


Parenthood is a strange experience

by Mullk6



Series: What if? [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Danzo is gonna die, Don’t copy to another site, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Good Akatsuki (Naruto), Good Orochimaru (Naruto), Harry Potter is not James Potter's son, Hiruzen is useful, Jiraiya is useful, Orochimaru gets his priorities straight, Orochimaru only did it to spite Jiraiya, Parental Orochimaru, Parselmouth Harry Potter, Protective Orochimaru, The Orochimaru/Lily pairing is not prominent, also surprising, at least in the conventional sense, congratulations Orochimaru, he had no idea what would result from it, it was a one-night stand, it's a boy!, surprisingly, the ame orphans live
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2019-12-29 19:07:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18300209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mullk6/pseuds/Mullk6
Summary: Harry Potter isn't a Potter, or well, he's not just a Potter. Finding out about his complicated parentage sends the Saviour of the Wizarding World to the Elemental Countries. He is then almost immediately captured by Hanzo the Salamander.It's a good thing Jiraiya has spies in many places. And that he freaks out easily. Then again, the thought of Orochimaru re-producing would send fear through many.Even Orochimaru himself. Who, upon learning of his potential young relative, immediately sets figurative fire to all of Danzo's plans and goes after this child who looks like him.





	1. SNAFU

Harry Potter, age 17, gingerly touched his face as he looked in the mirror, eying the changes he'd hidden for a few years now. His face, skin and hair had started to change, little by little and the wizard had been afraid at first, but after a trip to Gringotts he'd found out why. His mother had borne another man's child, due to the fact that James was sterile, they had then proceeded to do a blood-adoption ritual, effectively giving Harry three parents. They had made sure to spell him to look like James, but with their death the spell had started to break and so Harry looked similar to what he assumed his second father had to look like. At least his hair was straight now, and it wasn't like he hadn't been pale before, it was just... his eyes. Or rather, the strange purple markings on his eyelids. He'd done an inheritance test and he knew his other father's name and approximately where to find him, all he had to do was make himself leave.

It wasn't that he wanted to stay in Britain, it was just that after fighting for so long he didn't want to give up the place he'd fought for. Though perhaps it would be better to leave. After all, he didn't really feel like he belonged. And... the thought of an actual family plagued his mind and wouldn't leave him alone. If he left, he might actually have that. Perhaps this man, Orochimaru, would accept him, and if not... well, Harry was always good at adapting. With this in mind, Harry started making preparations.

The barely-adult man fiddled with the bracelet he'd embedded runes in in order to not have to re-apply the glamour every other hour as he walked down the streets of some small village near a Hidden Village called Amegakure. He was glad he had no need for glasses anymore, otherwise the rain would be much more of a bother than it was currently. His portkey had landed not too far from there and he was slowly making his way in the direction of his father's village. Things were actually going pretty well for him even though the surrounding countries seemed to be in some kind of war.

He really shouldn't have jinxed it.

Not soon after entering another village, he ran afoul of some of the country's Shinobi. Had he not tripped while dodging a kunai, then he probably could've continued his journey relatively unmolested. As it was, the leather strap around his wrist his disguise was anchored to was sliced by one of the kunai and with his hood down, it was visible to everyone as his features shifted.

The leader grabbed him by his throat and started interrogating him on his identity and his connection to Orochimaru of the Sannin. Harry refused to speak and instead struggled in the man's hold.

This was how he ended up a prisoner to Hanzo the Salamander. Shackled somewhere underground where he was cold and forced to listen to the steady sound of dripping water. Had his wrists not been shackled against the wall, he would have escaped already. If they were normal shackles attached to chains, he could reach them and open them with an alohomora and apparate away, however, his hands were locked by a solid piece of metal held shut by a padlock which he was unable to reach, should he try to apparate, he'd rip his arms out of their sockets. It had been almost a week now and Harry was starting to break. He had yet to speak a word to his _gracious host_. It didn't matter that he did not know a thing about his father, he refused to let the man know anything. Harry did not know if the man could use his identity against his father, nor if it would work, but he'd rather not risk it. Family was much too important to him.

Jiraiya had never been a quiet person, Orochimaru thought with disdain, but the rather obvious approach was a little much even from him. Before the Snake sannin could debate jumping out the window to escape his brash teammate, the white-haired menace threw his door open.

“Orochi! Where are you, teme?”

With a sigh, Orochimaru exited his private lab and came face-to-face with his teammate, who had obviously been on his way to the exact same place he'd just left “Yes, Jiraiya? Is there a reason you are imitating that giant toad you insist on summoning?”

Instead of taking the bait like usual, the man thrust a picture in the pale man's face, causing him to roll his eyes and pluck the piece of paper from his teammate's hand before bringing it to a distance from which he could actually see what was printed there. His mind then promptly froze at what he saw.

A young man wearing a cloak made to be worn in the rain, with slick black hair that reached the back of his neck and emerald eyes staring defiantly at the man holding him up by his neck. But that wasn't what had the raven stopping and staring, no. It was the purple markings identical to Orochimaru's.

Said man whipped his head to stare wildly at the Toad Sage, who didn't need any prompting as he started to explain “One of my contacts delivered that to me, about a week ago, Hanzo acquired a new prisoner, that kid in the picture. Anyone can see the resemblance, Orochi, what do we do?”

It didn't happen often, but sometimes Jiraiya reminded him why he was fond of the man. And this was one of those times.

“We need to talk to Sarutobi-sensei.”

Without even pausing, they both took off towards Hokage Tower. Orochimaru had only five minutes prior been considering an offer made to him by Danzo. With this development however, Orochimaru knew he had no choice. If he did not get this child before that man, he would be forced to work for Danzo. Which meant he had to move against the old kook and thus shut down any possibility of working his more morally gray experiments.

Somehow, that didn't seem so bad anymore. That small part of Orochimaru that craved family was ruthlessly crushing the part of the scientist that wanted to discover how to achieve immortality. If this young man, this child, was part of his extinct clan then he did not want to live longer than him, screw the cycle of rebirth.

Hiruzen looked up at the sound of hurried footsteps and suppressed his urge to jump when his door was thrown open, not by Jiraiya or even his secretary (not that she'd have the guts to do it) but Orochimaru, looking harried for once. He'd never expect this sort of disregard of manners from his star-pupil, so he knew immediately that there was something wrong. When the man hurried over and laid down a photograph in front of the old Hokage, he understood. The child held an uncanny resemblance to the man in front of him and if Hanzo had him... well, Hiruzen could understand the state his student was in.

Looking up into his student's eyes, the old Sarutobi asked “I assume you wish to retrieve him?”

Orochimaru visibly bit his cheek and nodded, which was so out of character that the Third almost had to check for a henge, but refrained. He knew his student cared for family, he'd been there for him when his parents perished, after all.

“I'd like to leave as soon as possible, before other parties find out about this and act on the information.”

Hiruzen looked sharply at his student, reading between the lines “Who?”

His student seemed to hesitate before speaking “I was... approached by an organization within the village with the option of working for them... if he gets hold of this,” he tapped the boy in the picture “person, there will be no choice.”

Hiruzen's expression darkened. It was as he'd feared, then. Danzo had actually put together Root, as he'd suggested a while ago, even though Hiruzen had explicitly told him no “I see. Very well, gather whomever you think will be useful on this retrieval mission, I shall run interference. Consider this an S-rank mission.”

The surprise on Orochimaru's face was painful to witness, but the determination and gratitude that followed warmed his heart “Hai, Hokage-sama.”

Hiruzen waved him out “Go, come back to retrieve the mission scroll before you leave. Hurry.”

With a nod, both his students turned and left in a hurry, most likely to find their third member. Whether or not they'd recruit anyone else was debatable, but the Hokage put that out of his mind as he drafted up a mission scroll with the bare bones of the mission detailed there before ranking it S-class.

He would not be the one to keep his student's family from him.

That was how the three-man-team found themselves once again in Ame, though for a completely different reason than last time. Had the situation been different, Jiraiya would've tried to convince the other two to let him search for his students. As luck would have it, though, when they were casing out Hanzo's HQ, they ran across one of them.

“Sensei?”

The three of them looked to the side where the red-haired teen stood in the shadows, his hair shadowing his eyes, but they could all see the apprehension and joy in his body-language. 

“Nagato!” Jiraiya quietly exclaimed with a wide grin before waving the boy over.

The red-head did come over, eying his teacher's companions even as he let Jiraiya sling his arm over his shoulders, positioning him so that he, too, was facing the building they wished to infiltrate.

“Why are you here?” the soft-spoken teen asked, glancing towards the building he knew was Hanzo's preferred haunt.

Jiraiya was the one to speak “Well, apparently Hanzo has a prisoner that looks an _awful lot_ like Orochimaru here.” he explained, jerking his thumb towards said teammate.

Nagato eyed them all before nodding “We heard about that too, Yahiko thought I had the most chance of finding out more... but, since you're here, couldn't Orochimaru-sama have some of his smaller summons search for this person?”

They all blinked before said snake summoner agreed “An excellent idea, we hadn't gotten that far yet.”

With that, he breezed through the hand signs and biting his thumb, summoning three small snakes that would have no trouble blending in with the shadows “I want you to investigate that building,” he started, indicating it “there should be a prisoner there that resembles me greatly, we might be related. I want you to confirm his presence.”

The snakes hissed in confirmation before rapidly slithering away to do his bidding. With this, all four sat down to wait. And if Orochimaru was visibly tense, no one pointed it out.


	2. Jailbreak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orochimaru's summons have no tact. That's it, that's the chapter.  
> Well, Harry and Orochimaru also finally meet for the first time.

Summons tended not to speak human amongst themselves, especially snakes. It was much more convenient to just hiss, since eavesdroppers would be out of luck. At least in theory. No one really believed Speakers existed anymore, if they ever had. This made the following occurrence all the more profound than just finding their Summoner's hatchling as they suspected their objective was.

When Harry woke up to unfamiliar voices, his foggy mind didn't register the language they were using. Then again, he'd never been good at discerning when he was using Parceltongue. 

“ _~The ssscent iss going thisss way... it ssssmells like Masssster, doesssssn't it?~_ ”

“ _~Yesssss... it musst be Masssster'sssss hatccchling... why isssn't Massster'sss hatccchling sssssafe in hissss nessst?~_ ”

“ _~Good quessssstion...~_ ”

Harry opened his eyes and tried speaking “ _~Who'ssss there?~_ ” he hissed without noticing.

The three voices stopped before one of them spoke back “ _~Who'sss there! Sshow yourssself to the noble ssssummons of Ryuuchi Cave!~_ ”

Harry chuckled “ _~I would if I could, but I'm sssshackled to a wall.~_ ”

There was a brief silence before a soft sound made it to his ears. It took him longer than it should have to realize it was the sound of slithering. This was only confirmed when a small, dark red snake popped through a small hole in his cell-wall.

“ _~Massster'sss hatccchling! Massster'sss hatccchling isss a Ssssspeaker!~_ ”

The little snake was followed by a dark brown one and a black one as they all approached him and slithered all over him once they reached him.

Harry blinked as the snakes tasted him, obviously reaffirming his scent, before what they had said clicked in his sluggish mind “ _~Massster? Do you mean Orochhhhimaru?~_ ”

“ _~That issss what the two-leggerssss call him.~_ ”

Harry swallowed thickly as his eyes burned “ _~Fa-ther... father... came for me?~_ ”

The red one hissed an answer that was equal parts confusing as it was informative “ _~Masster'sss loud Toad told Massster about hatcccchling. Massster came with chosssen-nessst to invessstigate.~_ ”

Harry sagged, familiar enough with snake terminology to know that his father had people he considered family even though he was not related to them. That was good. When he'd discovered the man he'd become painfully aware of the fact that he had no family and that he was, essentially, alone. He was glad that was not the case. And it seemed like family meant as much to his father as it meant to the wizard.

The red one bobbed as it seemed to think “ _~Born-from-earth and Livessss-in-sssshadowssss can report back to Massster, I'll ssstay here to guard Massster'sss hatcccchling.~_ ”

The two remaining snakes seemed to think about this, before nodding “ _~Alright, Ssswimsss-in-blood.~_ ” the brown one agreed.

Thus, Harry was left alone with a red snake coiled around his neck, smiling for the first time in weeks as he waited for his last remaining family to come and get him. It was nice not to have any expectations of whether he should be able to escape on his own.

Orochimaru was the first to notice them and his subtle shift alerted the others, with Nagato lagging behind since he did not know his tells but did notice Jiraiya perking up slightly. The Snake Sannin was confused and slightly worried when only two of his summons returned.

“Where is Chi?” he asked as the brown and black snakes slithered up his body and came to rest on either shoulder.

“Chhhi sstayed with the little Sspeaker,” Tsuchi, the brown snake, replied while Kage bobbed as if nodding.

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow “Speaker?”

Kage hissed with something akin to glee “A human born with the Tongue of Ssnakess. Your hatcccchling sspeakss in our language.”

The raven hummed “Interesting.” before he noticed what Kage had called him “ _My_ hatchling?”

Tsuchi hissed “Hatcccchling identified you asss 'father'.”

Were he a lesser man, Orochimaru would have stumbled and slid down the wet wall behind him. Instead, he leaned a hand against it as he tried to remember a time when the child could possibly have been conceived. He came up with a night some 18 years ago when a redhead with the greenest eyes, identical to the boy's, had propositioned him, blatantly ignoring Jiraiya's advances. He'd done it mostly out of spite, but he had to admit he enjoyed her company. She had disappeared the morning after and he now wondered if she had deliberately had sexual intercourse with him in order to get pregnant. He wouldn't be surprised if it was so, the boy had recognized him, after all. But why now? Why had the child decided to seek him out now? There was no other reason for the boy to be so far from the place he had met his mother unless he was heading for Konoha.

The thirty-five-year-old shinobi took a deep breath before centering himself “Right. We need to get him out of there before Hanzo notices.”

Tsunade, Jiraiya and Nagato only nodded. The Toad Sannin then clasped his shoulder and said “Lead the way.”

Harry rested as well as he could, what with his arms being under constant strain from their position against the wall. It would all be over soon. His father had found out about him, somehow, and had come for him. He wasn't sure why, but maybe the man was equally desperate for family. That would be nice.

He hadn't heard footsteps, so he jerked when the lock suddenly clicked and the door opened to reveal four shadowed figures that visibly paused at the sight of him. The red snake lifted its head and hissed happily, causing Harry to relax even as his cell was entered. His eyes had long since become accustomed to the dim lighting of the dungeons, so he was able to see their faces when they got close enough. It took all he had not to cry at the sight of the purple markings mirroring his own as their owner worked on the lock.

Harry gingerly lowered his arms when his wrists were released, not able to hide the wince at the pain of finally lowering them for the first time in a while.

His father eyed him with something akin to concern “Can you stand?”

Harry shook his head “Atrophy... deprivation... and starvation.” he offered as an explanation.

The answer obviously displeased him and the man he'd come looking for turned to one of his companions “Jiraiya! Carry him.” he snapped.

“Why do _I_ have to do it?” the burly man in the back asked even as he stepped forward to do just that.

Orochimaru waved a hand at the teen “ _I_ am the Ninjutsu expert and I need my hands free if we encounter anyone on our way out. If you drop him I _will_ feed you to Manda.”

“Scary.”

Harry released a sigh of relief. So his father was being pragmatic, not shunning him. That was a relief.

He was embarrassed to say he'd blacked out during their escape and only woke when he heard his father tell his friend to “Hand him over.” and feeling himself being placed on someone's back. His father had discarded his cloak by then and Harry was in full view of the man's hair. At this point everything caught up to the younger raven and the tears flowed freely. If his father felt the wetness on his neck, he gave no indication of it. He fell asleep soon after that, feeling strangely content even as he ached and shivered.

Orochimaru gazed upon the sleeping face of the teenager who bore his clan's markings. The one his summons had claimed was his son. The one that had apparently called him 'father'. The one who was injured and vulnerable and had been silent for the entire time he'd been captured. He didn't know what to think of that last one as he'd watched Tsunade heal him and seen flashes of the boy's scars.

The blanket hid the teen's body from view, including the strange pouch around his neck that they had been unable to remove and in Tsunade and Jiraiya's case, unable to see until Orochimaru had pointed it out. He wondered just what kind of Fuuinjutsu was woven into it. At least it hadn't shocked him like it had his teammates. Perhaps it was linked to blood...

The Snake Sannin snapped out of his musings as the lithe body behind him started moving and the possible parent shifted to partly face the boy as emerald eyes fluttered open blearily, scanning the surrounding area.

Harry woke up sluggishly, but for once he didn't feel the need to be instantly alert and wondered why that was. When he spotted the fuzzy figure of his father, he realized why. Going through the motions of pushing himself up into a sitting position was surprisingly less painful than he had anticipated and after glancing at his arms, he realized there were no injuries. He took a moment to inspect the anomaly before letting it be and meeting the amber eyes of the man he had been journeying to meet. Now that he was there, Harry wasn't sure what he was supposed to say.

Luckily, his father beat him to it “Tsuchi and Kage tell me that you claimed me as your father.”

The emerald-eyed teen furrowed his brows at the foreign names “Tsuchi? Kage?”

The pale man raised an eyebrow “My summons. They did not introduce themselves?”

Harry's eyes lit up in understanding “Oh! Oh, they did, but not with those names. See, names like that are a human thing, really, and snakes have a different way of verbal identification. It seems like your snake summons operate differently, however...”

His father was obviously interested and beckoned him to continue.

Harry took a deep breath “Your um, summons identified each other as: “Swims-in-blood”, “Born-from-earth” and “Lives-in-shadows”. Which would probably make Tsuchi the brown one and Kage the black one?”

Orochimaru nodded “Yes, very good, the red one was Chi.”

Harry nodded and murmured “Accurate...”

The older man sat there in brief silence before he started, hesitantly, to speak “How did you... are you certain... your mother-”

It was obvious the man wasn't sure how to breach the subject or even what to ask, so Harry opened the mokeskin pouch and summoned the picture of his parents holding him, stilled just in case, and handed it over. The man took the picture and his eyes obviously zeroed on the image of his mother.

“Mom... Lily... she was the smartest in her generation, or so people have told me... when she found out that her husband, James, was sterile due to an attack on his person, she looked for other options to have a child that would be theirs by blood... she came up with the idea of getting a suitable man impregnate her, one that would never be able to find out about the child, and then performed a jutsu to re-write the infant's DNA in the womb... this had the odd side-effect of giving me three parents. Usually the Jutsu just erases one parent and puts another in its place but... neither of them had the heart to do it, not really. Instead they cast a semi-permanent illusion on me to make me look more like James... it... broke a while back, so I started investigating.” the teen fell silent before continuing “It took time and effort to even get to the Shinobi Countries, since I lived outside them, but traveling took even more time since I had to try and evade being caught up in all the fighting and _find_ you.” he said with a hint of frustration as he dragged his hand through his hair and sighed “And then Hanzo happened and none of my training could help me and I honestly thought I would never...”

Orochimaru cut him off by slithering his arm around Harry's shoulders and bringing him into a one-armed embrace, his other hand carding through his smooth, if greasy, hair. It was a stiff movement, but the teen could appreciate the gesture. It was obvious the man really had no idea how to deal with the situation but was willing to try and unwilling to let go of the possibility of family.

As he basked in the embrace he opened his mouth again “There's a lot you don't know...”

“We can talk later, after we've got you situated in Konoha. The council will be a pain, so we need to preform a blood-test as soon as possible.”

Harry nodded at his father's words. If the council was anything like the Ministry, then it was better to stop them before they even started.

They didn't speak much after that, waiting for Jiraiya to come back from visiting his students.


End file.
